# -culum
## Latin
### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ku.lum/, [kʊɫ̪ʊ̃ˑ]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ku.lum/, [kulum] (stressed on the antepenult)

### Etymology 1

From -culus (diminutive suffix).

#### Suffix

-culum
* inflection of -culus:
** nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular
** accusative masculine singular

### Etymology 2

From (with anaptyxis) Proto-Italic *-klom, from Proto-Indo-European *-tlom, from *-trom. Compare stabulum, which comes from a similar suffix *-dʰlom. Despite the resemblance, ōsculum (which besides is never found in the form **ōsclum) and other diminutive nouns do not contain this suffix.

#### Alternative forms

* -clum, -crum, -ulum

#### Suffix

-culum n (genitive -culī); second declension
* suffix used to form some nouns derived from verbs, particularly nouns representing tools and instruments

##### Usage notes

The main form of this suffix is -culum, but various alternative forms exist. Most tend to be found in particular phonological contexts:
* -crum can be found only if /l/ is present somewhere earlier in the word, as in lavācrum. It developed from Proto-Italic *-klom by long distance dissimilation (compare -ālis and its allomorph -āris). The non-dissimilated form -culum can also be found after /l/ in some words, such as liāculum.
* -trum is found whenever the suffix occurs immediately after /s/, as in haustrum. In addition, it is found in some words that contain a liquid /r/ or /l/ somewhere earlier, such as arātrum, tālitrum; this type of formation seems to have been old and unproductive in Classical Latin. It was inherited from the Proto-Indo-European variant form *-trom. Apart from the limited occurrence of the ending in inherited Latin vocabulary, it has been used to coin neologisms, at first with influence from the cognate Greek instrument noun suffix -τρον (-tron), later (in Neo-Latin) with influence from modern English inanimate agent nouns ending in -er or -or (such as computer) and similar formations in other modern European languages.
* -ulum is found whenever the suffix occurs immediately after a velar plosive (spelled c or g), as in cingulum. It originates either from simplification of *-tlom after these consonants, or from the neuter version of the originally distinct suffix -ulus (found in some agent nouns, such as figulus (“potter”)) from Proto-Italic *-elos. This form can also occur after non-velar plosives, as in dēcipulum from dēcipiō.
* -rum is found after two stems that contain /l/ and end in a plosive: fulcrum and scalprum. It seems to originate from either *-tlom (with liquid dissimilation as in -crum) or *-trom, with simplification after a velar or labial plosive (as possibly in -ulum).
The suffix -bulum (dissimilated form -brum) is etymologically related and semantically similar; there are no obvious conditions for when it is used instead.
Most of these suffixes have variant first-declension feminine forms, such as -cula, -tra, -ula, -bula, -bra (as in pavīcula, mulctra, dēcipula, sūbula, dolābra). Variant second-declension masculine versions of these endings are much less common, but are attested in a few nouns, such as culter, scalper (a variant of scalprum), arāter (a rare variant of arātrum), and the plural rastrī.

##### Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

##### Descendants

From -āculum (by rebracketing of the first-conjugation thematic vowel -ā-):
* Catalan: -all
* French: -ail, -aille
* Italian: -acchio
* Portuguese: -alho
* Spanish: -ajo
From -ī̆culum:
* Spanish: -ijo

### References

* The Proto-Indo-European Instrument Noun Suffix *-tlom and its Variants, Birgit Anette Olsen, 1988.
* ↑ Ranjan Sen (2015) Syllable and Segment in Latin, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, pages 131-132, 152-153

### Further reading

* Clackson, James, Indo-European Word Formation: Proceedings from the International Conference, 2002
* Philip Baldi, The Foundations of Latin, 2002, pp. 304-305